Indiana fails to learn with ILEARN

Mark another failing grade for Indiana’s education policymakers. Their unending quest to attach a pass-or-fail label to public schools once again has them scrambling to avoid the fallout. Gov. Eric Holcomb and legislative leaders issued statements calling for schools to be “held harmless” from sanctions under the state’s school accountability requirements.

The first set of scores from the new ILEARN test, administered in the spring to students in grades 3 through 8, were released to the public on Sept. 4 and dropped double digits. School letter grades and teacher evaluations are tied to the scores.

Let’s review the state’s recent history on standardized testing:

• In 2010, Indiana became one of the first adopters of the Common Core academic standards, with a goal of statewide adoption by 2014 and alignment with state tests in 2015.

• In 2013, the state opted to leave the testing consortium set to provide the Common Core-aligned assessment and develop its own test.

• In 2014, the General Assembly voided the Common Core standards and adopted new standards, requiring a pilot test for the 2014-15 school year.

• The U.S. Department of Education informed Indiana in June 2014 it had to administer a “college and career ready” test by 2015 to comply with No Child Left Behind law provisions. The state had just two months to develop new academic standards and a test. The General Assembly designated ISTEP as the state test for 2014-15, even though it was in direct conflict of its federal waiver.

• With a pilot test added to meet federal requirements, policymakers learned in February 2015 that the new ISTEP would require up to 12 hours of testing. An executive order cut testing time to three hours.

• Online testing glitches were reported around the state in April 2015. In August, the testing vendor informed the state a scoring glitch would delay ISTEP results until December.

• The Legislature repealed the problem-plagued ISTEP in March 2016, although students would continue to take the test until the spring of 2017. The new test was named ILEARN: Indiana’s Learning Evaluation Assessment Readiness Network.

House Education Committee Chairman Robert Behning, ILEARN’s architect, might have thought a new name would obscure the state’s failed record on testing. It does not. The lawmakers driving Indiana’s testing program and the State Board of Education, whose members are appointed by the governor and the legislative majority leaders, are responsible for the dysfunction. Another call to “pause” the accountability system simply adds to their sorry performance.

“Bringing consistency and continuity to how we measure student progress and preparing students for post-secondary success is a shared and important goal,” Holcomb said in his statement Monday.

There is no consistency and continuity in Indiana’s student assessment program, only chaos and unending costs. The state’s broken testing program should be a top issue in next year’s legislative and gubernatorial races.